The back of the room

It was like watching someone getting a tooth pulled. With
pliers. Without pain killers. By a longshoreman.

That was the best comparison I could come up with as I drove
away from Murrieta's City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

The issue at hand was the council accepting the registrar of
voter's certification that enough valid signatures were gathered to
hold the recall election of Mayor Jack van Haaster and Councilmen
Kelly Seyarto and Doug McAllister.

The council was also asked to authorize $80,000 to pay for the
election and given the option of either setting the date Tuesday or
waiting to schedule the election at its next meeting in two
weeks.

Given that only two folks rose to speak on the matter —— one for
and one against —— the whole agenda item could have been dealt with
in a couple of minutes.

However, there seemed to be a lot council members wanted to say,
and little interest among the targeted trio in moving this painful
process along swiftly.

Allow me these few observations from the back of the room.

Credit must go to Councilman Dick Ostling. Unlike his
colleagues, when Ostling has nothing to say, he says nothing.

Van Haaster also deserved kudos for running the meeting and
keeping his head while those all around him were losing theirs.

Both van Haaster, who is an accountant and Seyarto, who said his
wife prepares tax returns, said that if the election were called
for the earliest possible date, just before the April 15 tax
deadline, it would hurt their ability to campaign.

Hey, everyone is busy. It would also be tough, any time of the
year, for Murrietans who drive to and from San Diego or Orange
County each day in bumper-to-bumper traffic to find time to
campaign.

McAllister could have gone a long way toward shaking the
impression he's there just to go along with van Haaster and Seyarto
by casting his vote to hold the election as soon as legally
allowed. As far as I know, neither Doug nor his wife are in the tax
business.

Councilman Warnie Enochs should stop calling for the trio to
resign. It's not going to happen and comes off as opportunistic
grandstanding.

In the audience, some folks from Rescue Murrieta and other
supporters of the recall effort did little to help their cause. The
catcalls hurled from the crowd when it was the council's turn to
speak were juvenile and uncalled for.

In the end, the council voted to accept the petitions and pony
up the money for the election, but postponed the decision on when
to set the date until the next meeting. Then they will have to pick
a date between 88 and 125 days later to hold the vote.

Painful? You bet, and it's just begun.

And I'm guessing if you were going to have a tooth pulled by a
longshoreman with pliers and no painkillers, you'd hope it would be
over as soon as possible.